War of the Lance is a more traditional strategy game with RPG trimmings. Set again in the Dragonlance universe, War of the Lance unveils a massive overworld map (which looked a tad like the Ultima map) and turns your questing party into something of a military unit. You must capture enemy strongholds on the map just like a regular strategy game, but War of the Lance also included quite a bit of diplomacy -- you needed to interact with other races and armies to form alliances. There were moments in the game where you drilled down on the heroes, though, and completed necessary quests for magical items, giving it a hint of traditional RPG game play.

DragonStrike is one of the early "odd ducks" of the D&D videogame catalog. Instead of a traditional RPG, this is flight sim that replaces your Tomcat with a huge dragon. Think of it as a very early Lair. The game had some strategic elements to it, but the main draw was the action of zooming across the landscape looking for scrapes with enemy dragons. The NES version of DragonStrike is a departure from the PC versions. Because the NES didn't have the juice to replicate the psuedo-3D of the PC game, it opted for a top-down adventure.

Slipping into the sewers beneath the cursed city of Waterdeep was a revelation. The story wasn't the draw here -- it was the outrageous graphics (for the time, of course) and the incredibly intuitive game play. Instead of worrying about hammering through a bunch of command menus, you moved through the dungeons and attacked the monsters below by clicking on on-screen buttons. Even thought he game used the same three-window view of Pool of Radiance, the visuals were light years ahead, thanks to VGA graphics. To put it in perspective, imagine the leap between Mario on the SNES and the N64.

Eye of the Beholder (named for the creepy beast at the end of the game) was followed by two sequels: The Legend of Darkmoon and Assault on Myth Drannor. Darkmoon is a superior game that builds on the basics of the first Beholder, but Myth Drannor just didn't connect. Myth Drannor was not developed by Westwood, though. Fans certainly appreciated its excellent graphics, but game-wise, it's largely considered the worst of the trilogy.

Before BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, there was this America Online-only game that generated a cult following that exists to this day. This is considered one of the precursors to the MMORPG genre, as players logged into the online city of Neverwinter to interact with other players and fight monsters together. The game used the Gold Box tech and didn't look nearly as good as Eye of the Beholder, but it quickly developed a following that stuck with the game until 1997, when AOL finally shut it down.

By 1992, console gamers were getting their RPG fix with Final Fantasy, not Dungeons & Dragons. Warriors of the Eternal Sun was an effort to replicate to J-RPG formula within the D&D universe. The result is a mixed bag. The game, viewed from the top down in the overworld like a FF game, looked pretty good and the combat system was fun. But the merciless save point system was borderline cruel. There were better RPGs on both the PC and the consoles at this point –- so why bother with crib sheet effort?

Treasures of the Savage Frontier has the distinct honor of being the final Gold Box game. However, by 1992, the Gold Box engine was a little creaky. SSI made up for the game's visual deficiencies with a great storyline surrounding intrigue in the state of Zhentil Keep and the addition of allies you can summon into battles. Players actually controlled these summoned characters (although, they aren't that strong) as they joined the fight, which lead to some wonderfully drawn out conflicts that carried real weight. Treasures of the Savage Frontier may not be the best of the classic D&D games -- but it wasn't a bad way to put those gilded boxes to rest.

Stronghold is another departure in the D&D videogame catalog – and one that is criminally underrated. The Gold Box series had long established the RPG formula for the series, but Stormfront Studios wanted to branch out into unfamiliar territory. The result is a SimCity-esque planning/strategy (with a touch of Civ) game take unfolds inside the D&D universe. Players build strongholds and other buildings to accumulate resources and meet objectives. At certain points, players engage in missions such as attacking enemy fortifications or monsters. It's one of those 'black swan' vids in the D&D category that's well worth tracking down.